It was one of the mostly clear days that often came in the winter in California. Richard and Julie had walked from Julie’s dorm hall to a small Italian restaurant located on Berkeley’s College Avenue as the sun went down. There were enough clouds in the sky to produce a picturesque scarlet sunset. They were sitting on high stools in the restaurant.
Julie had asked Richard to go to the Fellowship of the Daylight Moon with her. The Fellowship of the Daylight Moon met at various times to celebrate the phases of the moon and their relationship to the sun. Richard, who wanted to spend time with Julie, but didn’t really want to go to the meeting, had proposed making an evening of it and going out to dinner together before the event, which fell on a Friday night.
“You’ll like it, Rich,” said Julie. “At the new moon they use Chinese music with flutes and those zither things. It sounds really eerie. And nobody takes the daylight moon mysticism stuff seriously anyway. It’s like a role-playing game.”
“It’s crazy,” he said. “People fooling around with magic and astrology. Why can’t we just go to a movie?”
“There’s nothing good. I checked. Anyway I really want to hear the music. We can leave right after that if you want.”
“What’s so good about the music?” asked Richard.
“It sounds weird. It sends chills up my spine. It makes me feel like maybe there’s something outside—something that could break in on us and change everything.”
Richard shifted around on his seat and looked away. He looked out the window at the last, red remains of the sunset. Julie didn’t actually believe in the supernatural but she always half hoped something strange would happen to her. Richard, on the other hand, distrusted life and wanted merely to survive. The possibility that the supernatural could ‘break in’ and make things even more complicated than they already were was not an attractive prospect for him. However, some time ago Richard had decided that doing anything with Julie, no matter how dull, was better than doing anything without her, no matter how exciting.
Richard looked at Julie and smiled. She always smiled back and Richard could imagine smiling all day just to see that smile all day. He was as happy, in natural terms, as he would ever be, though realization of that happiness was masked from him by the combination of excitement and dread that being with Julie produced in him.
Julie was about average in height for a third generation American born Chinese. She was on the slim side but not skinny. Her hair was schoolgirl-straight, cut just below her shoulders. It was pitch black and shiny. She was somewhat plain but her face was expressive. That expressiveness had grown on Richard to the point that he found himself spending a significant fraction of his spare time thinking about and remembering her face.
She wore a sweater with a shirt under it, and black slacks. As was her wont, she had dressed more for the occasion, in this case walking in cool weather, than for attracting male attention. Julie was also excited. She was not obsessed with Richard at this point—she was more balanced in her feelings than he was. Nevertheless she saw no reason not to spend as much time as possible with him. He was good company—not quarrelsome or stubborn, not demanding or lascivious. He was intelligent. He was on the tall side, about six feet. Tonight he wore walking shorts, a tee-shirt and a windbreaker vest over it to keep warm.
When she first became acquainted with him she had had a hard time talking with him. He had been unable to finish a sentence. She had become frustrated with him, but finally she realized that he was just nervous. She had waited him out, trying to make him comfortable, and he’d apparently become used to her, because now he tended to finish his sentences more often than not.
Julie knew that Richard liked to spend time with her. It made her feel good, and she was not afraid to ask him to do things with her. She knew he didn’t really want to go to the meeting, but she wanted to go and she really thought he’d like it, at least the music part. So she smiled at him partly to get her way, but mostly because she liked smiling at him, especially when he smiled at her.
“Well,” said Richard, “what time is that meeting, anyway?”
“It’s supposed to start at 7:18 pm.”
Richard snorted. Nevertheless, he said, “I guess we had better start walking, then.”
They walked toward the campus. As they turned onto the path that led to the building where the meeting would be held, they walked past some trees covered with fragrant pink flowers.
Richard stopped. “Smell them,” he said.
Julie breathed in the fragrance of the ornamental plums. Richard reached up, picking a branch and giving it to her.
They came to the building where the meeting was held. It was in a small auditorium in the basement. As they went in, the room was dark, with a few of the ceiling lights turned on dimly and the green exit signs glowing ghoulishly. There were candles but they were not lit due to fire regulations. Someone had brought small flashlights to illuminate the candles.
There were ten or fifteen people in the room, their faces at first not visible in the dim light. At the front were a few musicians. Nobody moved or spoke. After a few minutes Richard whispered to Julie, “What are we supposed to be doing?”
“We’re waiting for the right moment. It’s a certain moment having to do with the position of the moon. I don’t really understand it.”
A young man walked to the front. He was wearing a black cowl embroidered with a sun and a moon. He waited as he looked at an elaborate decorative timepiece. Finally he said with a loud voice, “The moment has come!”
The music began. It was played by a small group of players using Chinese instruments including a bamboo flute, a zither and a fiddle. In the dark light the music sounded like howling to Richard, then after a while he thought of ghosts and demons. The music seemed to be focused on dying and death. It went on for some time. After a while it became quieter and slower, seeming now more to weep than to howl. It trailed off into silence.
The leader, who had stood motionless the whole time the music played, again spoke loudly. “The moment has passed!”
The music began again. It was different, calm and melodic, giving a hopeful atmosphere. After about ten or fifteen minutes, the lights were gradually turned up.
After the music subsided, the leader, whose face was barely visible in his cowl even with the light on, began to speak. “Our fellowship is small—few are those who seek the true knowledge of the mysteries of the skies. I see that there are newcomers among us, and so tonight I will speak of the outer mysteries.
“As some of you know, when both sun and moon are in the sky simultaneously it is a time of good omen. But there are different ways to have a daylight moon.
“Our next meeting will celebrate the daylight moon setting with the sun. This will be one of our high times, when heart and mind are joined. As is our custom from old, anyone who wishes may then read a poem he or she has composed in honor of this time. Our music will be that of Bach, representing the joining of heart and mind.
“When the sun rises as the moon sets, it is a time of clarity and rationality. Dark thoughts are put aside. We listen to Mozart.
“When the sun sets as the moon rises, it is a time of romance and mystery. Follow your hunches and feelings during this time. We listen to the romantics such as Chopin, Debussy and Beethoven.
“We celebrate, or perhaps ‘observe’ is a better word, two other times. The full moon is a time of dark adventure, a time to walk the earth at night, a time of paradox and danger but also of new knowledge. We listen to modern music to represent chaos and the dissolution of all things.
“Finally, tonight we note the coming and passing of the new moon—the time of darkest omen to our fellowship. All clarity and reason is threatened, and one acts at one’s peril. We listen to Chinese dirges to recognize that death is a part of life.
“For now is the time of death. It is also the time of rebirth. That theme is common, in one form or another, to all human societies, however primitive or advanced. Life ends, but life follows. The dying of the old makes way for the new. The old has passed away; all things have become new.
“Those of our fellowship walk in the belief that both sun and moon influence, without dominating, the course of our life. To the extent that one aligns the rhythms of one’s life with those of the sun and moon, one can benefit from, rather than be opposed by, those influences.
“All our ceremony, then, is intended to remind us of those influences.”
With this the leader stopped speaking and bowed his head. After a minute or two he walked to the exit. Julie and Richard rose to leave, but Richard, to his great surprise, saw someone he knew.
“Mike!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”